Gpxsonar Version 1.1 Final Release

January 9, 2004

What's new in the 1.1 release?

New Feature: it is now possible to bookmark ‘center’ coordinates.

New Feature: the application can now be installed on to a memory card.

New Feature: the GPX file statistics now include the count of found caches and field notes.

New Feature: it is now possible to export the cache data to a .loc file. GPS Tuner users will appreciate this one ;-).

New Feature: a new menu called ‘My Stuff’ has been added which groups the following options: ‘Travel Bugs’, ‘Caches’ (new), ‘GC.com User ID’ (new).

New Feature: ‘My Stuff\GC.com User ID’ : this new option allows you to provide the user ID that you use on www.geocaching.com so that GpxSonar can identify the caches that belong to you. This information is used some of the other new features.

New Feature: ‘My Stuff\Caches’ : this option opens up a ‘Cache Manager’: you can use it to manage the caches that you haved placed and you can use it to make permanent copies of cache pages showing in the main cache list so that they can be available even if you don’t have the GPX file where they originally came from loaded in the application. In either case, all the properties of the caches are editable. If a cache has multiple waypoints, they can also be tracked individually. The management of the waypoints is eased with the ability to import a GPX file generated by EasyGPS so that you don’t have to enter them manually. If you don’t know about EasyGPS, you can find more information at http://www.easygps.com

New Feature: the caches that you own are now tagged with a ‘red arrow’ icon in the main cache listing. This features requires you to provide the user ID that you use on geocaching.com.

New Feature: the statistics report about the content of the GPX file (accessible from “Reports\GPX File Info”) has been improved to include icons.

New Feature: the ‘Field Notes’ report has been enhanced with a filter allowing you to report on and delete field notes selectively.

New Feature: the dialog used to enter coordinates has been enhanced with a waypoint projection feature. The projection distance can be expressed in ‘Meters’, ‘Feet’ or ‘Paces’. Angles can be expressed in degrees or in terms of a direction (N, S, E, W, NE, …).

Bug Fix: under HPC, Pocket Internet Explorer has trouble with filenames containing spaces. GPXSonar no longer uses spaces in bitmap filenames to work around this issue.

Bug Fix: the ‘Distance Units’ were not set properly by default. They are now set to ‘Statute Miles’ by default.

Bug Fix: In the ‘Travel Bugs’ properties dialog, the maximum length for the name of a travel bug has been extended to 100 characters from 30.

Bug Fix: In cache log entries, any coordinates provided by a cacher would not be displayed. This has been fixed.

Note: because of the changes affecting the naming of some of the files used in previous versions of GPXSonar, you should uninstall the application from your Pocket PC before installing version 1.1. Before you uninstall it, please make sure to make a backup of the GPXSonar.dat file located under \Program Files\GPXSonar\Config.

January 9, 2004

GpxSonar users: your feedback is requested.

Good, bad or indifferent, I want to know what you think about the application. If you have problems with it, I want to hear about it. If everything is going smoothly I also want to know about it . Your feedback is the only way to make a good thing better.

Regards,

Fabien.

January 9, 2004

Is this an update from the 1.1r version or the same?

January 9, 2004

Rosco...

Same exact thing, except that the PPC 2002 version is available now.

24.7k · January 9, 2004

Can it export a S&T Pushpin file?

January 9, 2004

RK...

Nope. And here's why: as a Mapopolis user, I have ditched S&T a while ago and will likely never use it again. I was so disappointed by S&T 2004 for the PPC that it will take a miracle for me to change my mind

24.7k · January 9, 2004

I've heard mapopolis now supports waypoint files so you can display them like S&T does. If this is true does Sonar export those files?

January 9, 2004

RK...

The only way that I know of to export waypoints to Mapopolis is to use the 'GPXToMaplet' app that they have made available. So you know, their format is -very- proprietary.

Otherwise, GPXSonar can export waypoints in .loc format at well as the native format of Magellan GPSrs.

January 9, 2004

Geo will this work or interfere with anything?

Rename the index.html file to help.html and copy all the doc files from your web page into the docs folder in the program. Then you can have the whole doc come up under the file/help menu.

I've already got them loaded in a folder but you have to go there and hit the index file to load it. Can't create a shortcut because of the format in the files....

Edited January 9, 2004 by Rosco Bookbinder

January 9, 2004

Rosco...

That will work just fine. I just tried it. The bitmaps will be hard to see in Pocket IE but other than that, it's alright.

January 9, 2004

Cool. Done...

January 9, 2004

GEO, first off I want to say GEOSonar is a GREAT program, and thanks.

Question: I know you can convert a .GPX file to a .LOC file, and puts it in the Export folder, but how do you upload to the GPS V, or can you??

Thanks again.

Edited January 9, 2004 by Jim W

January 9, 2004

Jim W...

GPXSonar cannot upload to a GPSr on its own (yet). The primary use for exporting waypoints in .loc format is to be compatible with 'GPS Tuner' which can read such files.

Regards,

Fabien.

January 10, 2004

I've heard mapopolis now supports waypoint files so you can display them like S&T does.

As GEO said yes that's true by using the converter program. The only problem is (and there is a lot of discussion on the forum about it) you can't just show your waypoints. You have to see all the POI's that are on the maps also (your waypoints end up in the landmarks file). It might get changed one of these days if they listen to enough people complain......

January 10, 2004

Boy I have a lot of catching up to do here..

Geo, I've been meaning to make some screen shots of my PPC running Omega One's Battery Bar re: the minimize/close app issue. I'll get on that real soon and btw the progress with GPX Sonar is looking great. I really couldn't live without this program now. I don't know how people cache without PPCs.

Regarding Mapopolis: My maps have individual files for streets and POI. The street maps have some POI, but they seem to be limited to government and EMS facilities. Unless I'm traveling I never load up the POI maps, therefore I'm not bothered by more than a few incidental places like hospitals and court houses. While I'm on this topic, has anyone figured out if there are command line switches for the GPX2maplet utility? Which brings me to my next topic..

I've made a relatively simple, unsexy batch file for processing the three GPX files I get emailed to me from Geocaching.com. It unzips them, uses GPSBabel to make a CSV files for S&T 2004 and make LOC file from the primary GPX file. It then uses GPX2maplet to make the mlp files. And finally I use a freeware utility called rcmd to copy all of these gpx, mlp, and loc files over to my PPC. The only thing I haven't done yet is parse the CSV files to make them easier to import into S&T2004. Geo, I know you opinion of PocketS&T :tongue: but I really like the desktop application for making maps with hyperlink enabled pushpins. Anyway, if anyone is interested I'll post the batch file which you can freely modify (or even improve and repost). The only glitch in the whole thing is that darn GPX2maplet utility. It brings up a dialog box after converting each GPX file, and you have to acknowledge it by clicking on the OK button.

I'll try not to stay away for so long again. I know these long posts can be tedious.

January 10, 2004

Geo,

I babbled on so much in my last message I completely forgot about an idea I had for GPXSonar. I was going to bring this idea to the attention of Geocaching.com, but when I saw how hard of a time you had trying to talk to someone about having GPXSonar synch with the GC.com site, I became discouraged.

My thought was to take all of the difficulty ratings and terrain ratings for caches that you have already done and come up with averages and ratios. I sort of thought about this when I saw the Keenpeople.com site and stats they have. In particular, the rate-a-cache thing. Its a kind of useless little idea, but its really nothing more than some simple math.

Edited January 10, 2004 by EarlyMorningHours

January 10, 2004

The only glitch in the whole thing is that darn GPX2maplet utility. It brings up a dialog box after converting each GPX file, and you have to acknowledge it by clicking on the OK button.

The only commands I've seen for the convert program are the ones on the setup window itself.

The batch file sounds pretty nice. I used to make tons of them in the old dos days. Is there anyway you can put a Java command in the file to close the window?

January 10, 2004

I thought about converting the batch file to VBscript, but that sort of makes it unneccessarily complicated. The other thing was that not as many people are fluent in VBscript as batch. BTW, I got rcmd from freewareppc.com and the paext command that you see is PowerArchiver Command Line, also freeware (and awesome).

@ECHO OFF

del *.mlp /Q

del *.csv /Q

del *.loc /Q

del *.gpx /Q

IF EXIST 24608.zip paext -o+ 24608.zip

IF EXIST 25823.zip paext -o+ 25823.zip

IF EXIST 35757.zip paext -o+ 35757.zip

del *.zip /Q

IF EXIST 24608.gpx ren 24608.gpx Nearby.gpx

IF EXIST 25823.gpx ren 25823.gpx Found.gpx

IF EXIST 35757.gpx ren 35757.gpx Canadian.gpx

gpsbabel -i gpx -f Nearby.gpx -o s_and_t -F Nearby.csv

gpsbabel -i gpx -f Found.gpx -o s_and_t -F Found.csv

gpsbabel -i gpx -f Canadian.gpx -o s_and_t -F Canadian.csv

gpsbabel -i gpx -f Nearby.gpx -o geo -F Nearby.loc

gpxtomaplet Nearby.gpx

gpxtomaplet Found.gpx

gpxtomaplet Canadian.gpx

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Nearby.gpx "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\"

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Nearby.loc "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\"

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Found.gpx "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\"

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Canadian.gpx "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\"

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Nearby.mlp "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\Mapopolis\"

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Found.mlp "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\Mapopolis\"

rcmd copy c:\geocaching\Canadian.mlp "iPAQ File Store\My Documents\Mapopolis\"

January 10, 2004

Regarding Mapopolis: My maps have individual files for streets and POI. The street maps have some POI, but they seem to be limited to government and EMS facilities.

The maps I have for Mapopolis are probably the same as yours. Then again I'm not sure. I downloaded the maps and put them in the directory. Aren't the POI's in the maps themself but kept in a landmarks file? You can turn them off/on with the + or - but it also turns off the cache icons..

January 10, 2004

Rosco,

The Mapopolis file naming convension seems to be as follows; xxxstGGC.mlp and xxxSTNGC.mlp. The "xxx" is the abbreviated county name, the "st" is the two letter state abbreviation, and the GGC maps are POI maps, the NGC maps are street maps.

January 10, 2004

The Mapopolis file naming convension seems to be as follows; xxxstGGC.mlp and xxxSTNGC.mlp. The "xxx" is the abbreviated county name, the "st" is the two letter state abbreviation, and the GGC maps are POI maps, the NGC maps are street maps.

Just looked and all I have is NGC files. They always have a jillion dots which are all the POI's with my queries in with them. Try to turn off the POI's and the caches go along.......

January 10, 2004

Actually I wonder if we should move this to a new topic area. GEO had this one started for GPXSonar..

Sorry Fabien. :tongue:

Edited January 10, 2004 by Rosco Bookbinder

January 10, 2004

GEO

I have a questions

When you find a cache and log it into Field Notes it puts a green Icon in the Note column, but nothing in the Found column, is the Found column for sorting only?

Thanks

Jim W

Edited January 10, 2004 by Jim W

January 10, 2004

Jim W...

This normal behavior and here's why: the green checkmarks only appear after you have logged the cache on GC.com. The next time you download your PQ, the checkmark will be there.

In that same column, a 'read arrow' icon will show up in front of your caches (if you have any) and you have entered your GC.com User ID.

Regards,

Fabien.

January 10, 2004

Thanks GEO, you sure have been a great help.

Thanks again

January 11, 2004

Rosco

Rename the index.html file to help.html and copy all the doc files from your web page into the docs folder in the program. Then you can have the whole doc come up under the file/help menu

Could you please explain in detail how you did this, as it would be great to have the Help Doc with you while caching. I've downloaded the Doc file from the web page, and renamed the index.html file to help.html, now what??

Thanks

Jim W

Edited January 11, 2004 by Jim W

January 11, 2004

Rosco
Rename the index.html file to help.html and copy all the doc files from your web page into the docs folder in the program. Then you can have the whole doc come up under the file/help menu

Could you please explain in detail how you did this, as it would be great to have the Help Doc with you while caching.

Thanks

Jim W

Not a problem Jim,

Download the docs from the website in the zipped format. The main doc file is called index.html. Rename it to help.html. Go to the docs folder of the program and copy all the help files that you downloaded from the web site into that folder. The file you renamed will overwrite the help.html file in that folder. Now......when you bring up the program and go to file/help it will bring up the help docs that you got from the website......

Hope I made that clear as mud. I would never be a doc riter....

January 11, 2004

Rosco, the Help file wouldn't overwrite the program Help file, and the reason is that the new Help file is .htm, and the program Help file is .html, I think this is the reason it won't overwrite, is there a way to change this??

Thanks

Jim W

January 11, 2004

Rosco, the Help file wouldn't overwrite the program Help file, and the reason is that the new Help file is .htm, and the program Help file is .html, I think this is the reason it won't overwrite, is there a way to change this??

Thanks

Jim W

Ummmmm

Change the name of the index.htm file to help.html then copy it over.

Told you I can't rite doks........

Talk to GEO, he's the one that doesn't keep things the same...

Edited January 11, 2004 by Rosco Bookbinder

January 11, 2004

Thanks, Rosco for all your help, but I couldn't get it to work.

Thanks again

Jim W

January 11, 2004

Thanks, Rosco for all your help, but I couldn't get it to work.

Oh Jim..........

Ok here it is in best I can doc writter.....

Find an empty directory on your hard drive or create one if you have to and unzip the doc zip you got from GEO's web site. There will be 14 folders created along with 14 files. Rename the file index.htm to help.html. Highlight ALL the folders and files at one time and hit COPY. Now with your PDA synced, find the docs folder in the GPXSonar program and highlight it then hit the paste button. That will copy all the folders and files into the docs folder under GPXSonar. Now when you hit the file/help button on the program it WILL WORK...

January 12, 2004

Rosco, I've done that right to the letter, and when I tap on Help all I get is the Sonar.gif on the screen, are you running GEOSonar 1.1 and ppc 2003 ??

Thanks

Jim W

January 12, 2004

Rosco, I've done that right to the letter, and when I tap on Help all I get is the Sonar.gif on the screen, are you running GEOSonar 1.1 and ppc 2003 ??

yup.

Are you sure you have all the folders and the single files underneath the doc folder in the program that would have copied from the zip? You should have 15 folders and 18 files below them (counting the original help file you renamed) Are you sure you renamed the right file? The image you are pulling up is from the images/help folder a sub folder of docs. I have no idea how you are pulling it unless you got the copied stuff in the wrong place.

The last thing I want you to do is mess up your program or settings and what not so if you aren't comfortable with going any further then you might as well call it the day.

Let me know if you do get it working and what the prob was...

I like the way you call the program after GEO. I'm sure he appreciates it...ehehe

Edited January 12, 2004 by Rosco Bookbinder

January 12, 2004

I have come across a minor glitch in the program. When entering cache coordinates in the Field Notes, it drops the beginning and trailing zeros in the coordinates. So W083 .03.490 becomes W083.3.49 which can be most annoying. I like that feature of the Field Notes because I often post the coordinates I have for a cache location if the ones given are way off.

January 12, 2004

Rosco, here's the latest, I've go it so when you tap Help the page comes up with no problems, but if you scroll down and tap one of the subjects like "Cache Details Option"a window pops and says "The page you are looking for cannot be found"

Edited January 12, 2004 by Jim W

January 12, 2004

Rosco, here's the latest, I've go it so when you tap Help the page comes up with no problems, but if you scroll down and tap one of the subjects like "Cache Details Option"a window pops and says "The page you are looking for cannot be found"

Ok what that is telling me Jim is that you have the files and or dirs not all in the right place. The index file links (menu items) are called in the htmls from the dirs they are supposed to be in. You should have a folder tree that looks like this...

-=(GEO's)=- GPXSonar

Config

Docs

Export

GPXSonar.exe

In the docs folder you should have this.........

CacheOptions_files (folder)

14 more folders below

then 17 html files and one .dat file

If it don't look like that then you aren't going to get it to work...

Keep me informed and good luck....

January 12, 2004

You popped an edit to your post while I was typing...ehehe....

Looks the same but you have something wrong someplace. Just can't see it from here......

Do you have the program AND the doc files on your storage card or in different places?

January 12, 2004

Rosco, I GOT IT, :unsure: here's what I had to do, don't rename Index.htm just load everything into Doc file in the GEOSonar program, once you have it there tap the Doc file, and rename Index.htm to Help.html, and it will overwrite the Help.html in the program.

Everything is on the Storage Card.

Rosco, thanks a million for all your help, you sure hung in there :blink:

Edited January 12, 2004 by Jim W

January 13, 2004

Rosco, I GOT IT, here's what I had to do, don't rename Index.htm just load everything into Doc file in the GEOSonar program, once you have it there tap the Doc file, and rename Index.htm to Help.html, and it will overwrite the Help.html in the program.
Everything is on the Storage Card.

Rosco, thanks a million for all your help, you sure hung in there

Way to go Jim

Glad you finally got it working and all is ok in Cache land. I knew you wanted it bad enough to get it sooner or later. Of course by now you have seen the docs so much you probably know them by heart..

Not a problem helping all that I could or didn't. I have had plenty of help by many people on these forums and I do all I can to repy it. Right or wrong....

Take care my friend and happy caching

January 13, 2004

Rosco, I think it became a challenge to get it to work, and your right, I know most of them by heart now

Thanks again

Jim W

January 15, 2004

Let me start by saying this has to be the best piece of software on my PPC! Amazing, I love it!

I would, however like to see 2 changes.

#1. I find it difficult to work with the tap and hold menus. I prefer small menu toolbars.

#2 A search box! I'm at a loss why there isn't a small search box at the top of the screen that will let you enter a search item.

Once again, I love this piece of software. great job!

January 16, 2004

#2 A search box! I'm at a loss why there isn't a small search box at the top of the screen that will let you enter a search item.

There is a search menu that works quite well. It's under one of those tap/hold things you don't like.....

Fabien has had others request and talk about other options for menus. Not sure what his plans are at this point.

January 16, 2004

Insp Gadget...

Glad you like the app... Sorry you don't like the 'Tap & Hold' way of getting to the menus, but it's really not that hard.

Regarding the 'Search' function:

Filters In GPXSonar....

Regards,

Fabien.

January 16, 2004

Insp Gadget...

Glad you like the app... Sorry you don't like the 'Tap & Hold' way of getting to the menus, but it's really not that hard.

Regarding the 'Search' function:

Filters In GPXSonar....

Regards,

Fabien.

I guess I'm just old fashioned. LOL I knew there was a search function that was "hidden" in a few layers of menus, but would it noit be possible to place a small search box at the top of the main screen? I could then just enter the GC number in that box and it would filter them in a quick manner. Is this possible?

January 17, 2004

Inspector...

Anything is possible... I'll see what I can do for the next release, even though I'm not making any promises :unsure:

January 17, 2004

Fabien, do you have any idea how long your web site will be down??

January 17, 2004

Ouch! I had no idea it was down!

Actually, it's not.... It's a DNS problem... Fixing it now.

January 17, 2004

Geo, love the software. Is there anyway to delete a cache from the gpx file after it is found? I tried ignore cache and it worked fine until I closed sonar and reopened it. Then the ignored cache was back. I've resorted to tagging found cahces as archived caches

Thanks for a cool app.

January 17, 2004

Is there anyway to delete a cache from the gpx file after it is found? I tried ignore cache and it worked fine until I closed sonar and reopened it. Then the ignored cache was back. I've resorted to tagging found cahces as archived caches

Volwrath

Did you try going into Cache Options/Field Notes and putting a "Found It". That will put a green tag on the entry so you know it's been found.....

January 17, 2004

Is there anyway to delete a cache from the gpx file after it is found? I tried ignore cache and it worked fine until I closed sonar and reopened it. Then the ignored cache was back. I've resorted to tagging found cahces as archived caches

Volwrath

Did you try going into Cache Options/Field Notes and putting a "Found It". That will put a green tag on the entry so you know it's been found.....

Just wondering if you are pulling queries with "found caches" also. Your list of founds would only be in your hand held until you pull a new list.

If you go into the list options/filters and highlight cache attributes then click config and the "hide found caches" click ok then check the box next to attribututes and click apply that will hide them that way. Of course that will only work if you are pulling queries with your found caches in them.

Hope that helps.

Gpxsonar Version 1.1 Final Release

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